


The Story of Amy Reeker

by PencilWolf15



Category: Skin Deep (Webcomic)
Genre: Basically there's nobody in the main cast that's mentioned, Gen, It's just me adding to the webcomic world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-16 02:18:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8082877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PencilWolf15/pseuds/PencilWolf15
Summary: An ordinary girl with an ordinary life gets on the bad side of the eccentric transfer student and her life suddenly gets extraordinary...and painful





	

**Author's Note:**

> There are no fanfics of this amazing webcomic here yet?! Blasphemy! I shall fix that!
> 
> Read it here, you won't regret it: http://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/issue-1-cover/

The dull sounds of the plane whizzing through the air echoed and shook the cabin. The captain, a black haired man, gave a wary and sad look to his only passenger amongst all his deliveries. The girl sat in the small couch with no great comfort, the mass of blankets set up on top of her in a length that went too far out for human legs, which she no longer possessed. She had most of her head shoved into a worn red stocking cap, with her shoulder length honey blonde hair appearing like she shoved some haphazardly into the hat. She had also covered her arms with a small hoodie, but he could spot a few stray clumps of fuzz sticking out where the hoodie failed to cover the arms up entirely. Her head was down, and the hoodie covering her arms sporting small dots of dark discoloration right under her elongated face. The captain sighed as he saw another silent tear drip from her face.

“How ye holdin’ up back there, Amy?” His accent was thick Liverpudlian

Amy flinched slightly, then lifted her head to reveal her waterlogged emerald eyes. She looked at the captain for a moment, then lowered her head again. “About as well as I was when we took off, just…” she paused, trying to get her new teeth to cooperate with her as well as draw in a shaky breath, “I’m not sobbing violently into my mess of a lower half like before,”

“I can’t say I blame you; what a way to turn your world upside down,” He turned back to face the sprawling mass of farmland in front of him, “I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like,”

“You’re lucky; it’s a thing better left inexperienced,” She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with a furred arm that she brought out of it’s hiding spot before quickly shoving it back, “I can still feel the news of these past few days sinking in. It’s making me want to scream out to the world with a megaphone,”

The man paused before speaking again, “I’m sorry, lass. Don’t know what I could say to comfort ya,”

“I do have a question, Mr. Green--”

“Please Amy, just call me William,”

“Ok. How were you able to pick me up and load me into your plane without much trouble? I’ve gained so much...me...that dad had to pull me in a cart to you. You picked me up and placed me inside without breaking a sweat!”

William chuckled, “Welcome to the world of creatures you never thought existed,”

Amy’s stomach sunk as well as her morale, “You’re another one?”

“We ain’t an isolated case; we’re anywhere, just not everywhere. And you are now part of it!”

“Marvy; so just what are you then?” She didn’t even try to be polite

“I,” A flash of light, and a lion tail swished into her view. William leaned to look at her, his human face replaced with a lion’s, “am a Nemean Lion, of Greek mythos,”

“The super strong, nigh indestructible beast that Hercules fought and successfully killed?” Amy’s question was met by a nod, “I thought there was only one,”

“Nope! We’re a race, lassie!” A flash of light, and the tail and lion face were gone again. William turned around again

There was a gap of silence, and neither knew nor cared about how much time had passed before William spoke up again.

“So what exactly is your story? Tim gave me a small rundown over the phone, but I wanna hear it come from you,”

“It’s a long story…” She responded more out of not wanting to talk than the story’s details being many.

“We got nothin’ but time, Amy,”

The teen paused, then sighed, “There’s multiple starting points; where do you want me to begin?”

“Your starting point. Not the one involving your dad all those years ago, how all this unfolded for you,”

“Alright then. Buckle up, it’s gonna start out as the most extremely normal story ever,”

“All buckled in, Ms. Reeker,”

\-----------------------------------  
“Class, listen up! Ms. Reeker, legs off the desk,” Amy looked up from her book, and took her legs off the desk to sit normally, “We have a new face to the school! Come on up, dear,” A pale girl with unnaturally bright lemon yellow hair, and dressed in all black, stood up, “This is Gamma Raymond, our foreign exchange student hailing from Asia!”

The hard look of disgust carved on Gamma’s face softened ever so slightly as she raised her hand to wave at everyone, “Hello,” Her accent was soft, but there was certainly an oriental edge to her voice.

“Asia?” A boy chimed up quizzically

“I know I don’t look Asian because my lineage doesn’t hail from Asia; I’m very Caucasian. My parents moved to China to get away from toxic family before I was born, and we liked it too much there to leave,” She felt everyone staring at her, and she knew exactly what they were staring at, “Yes, I am goth. No, my hair is not naturally blonde; it’s black, thanks for asking. I dyed it to stand out more in the sea of like colors. Plus I always liked the look of the high pigtails,” explaining the two trunks of feathered hair sticking out of her head, “Any more questions?”

When she got silence back, she walked back to her seat and sat back down.

First hour went on normally as everyone accepted Gamma as just another student, if a little eccentric with how she dressed. Not unusual in this school, anyways; they had range from hardcore sports people in big, puffy shoes all the way to punk rockers with a zillion piercings. This kind of thing wasn’t just normal, it was almost expected.

The day went on, and soon lunch hour A rolled around. Amy stood in line, nose in her book.

“Gamma Ray? She sounds so cool!” She heard a boy next to her tell his buddy. She lent this conversation her eavesdropping ear.

“Not really. She’s really antisocial and pushes everyone away, even Tox in third hour,”

“Even Tox? I thought goth people liked to hang out together,”

“Not this one, it seems. Sad too, she draws some awesome art! Look, she gave me one!” The boy took out a crumpled ball of notebook paper out of his jacket pocket and unfolded it. On it was a scribbling of runes and symbols inside a circle

“Looks like an alchemist’s array or something,”

“That’s what they’re called? Cool. Told me that if I recite the words written below with enough conviction I could shoot fire out of my hands,”

“That or grow a pair of goat horns out your head,” His friend poked at him jokingly

“Shut up, Jaden,” The boy prodded back

The two boys in front of her went on to talk about the new Ninja Turtles episode, and thus she lost interest. She refocused her attention on her book, realizing that she had read a whole page and didn’t absorb a single thing. She slid her bookmark into the page and closed the book, opting to just wait out the line.

Amy grabbed her lunch, a bean and cheese burrito with a side of mixed veggies, and sat down at her normal spot. She could practically count down the seconds as she predicted when a certain someone poked her hard the back. She flinched hard

“Booga boo!” Her friend’s voice came from behind her

“Hello to you too, Marco,” She droned out as the African-American boy sat across from her, brown paper bag in tow

“See I successfully managed to startle you,” A smug smile spread itself across his face

“I was expecting it, yanno. You do this every lunch period,”

“I still scared you,” He took a bite out of his sandwich

“I’ll give you that, at least,” She spooned some veggies into her mouth, “So, what’s new with you?” The manic grin spreading on his face and hyper gleam growing in his eyes gave everything away. Amy rolled her eyes, “Lemme guess, it has something to do with that Nicktoon you’ve become so engrossed in?”

“Yes, it does!” His voice quavered in excitement, “We should befriend Gamma!”

This took Amy by surprise a bit; she was expecting a long spiel about the episode he just watched and how much he loved it, “Really? Why?”

“Well, Tox gave me the thumbs down when it comes to my invitation of friendship, and now there’s a new goth in school!”

Putting two and two together, she groaned, “Not this again. We don’t need this. Another friend would be fine, but not when the reason is because of a friend circle you saw on tv,”

“That’s not it! I think she’s cool,” He whined, “It started out as me wanting that certain friend circle but the more I hear about her the more I like her. I know you have her first hour, and I don’t know if I have her, since she’s in lunch hour B. But regardless, I wanna at least talk to her,”

“Then talk to her,” She responded through a mouth full of burrito, “What’s stopping you?”

“Nothing; next chance I see her I’m gonna try talkin’ to her. I’m just telling you what my plan is both so you would know and so you’d maybe help me out?”

“I dunno, man. Little birdie told me she’s shy and antisocial; prefers to be left alone,”

“I still wanna try. She’s from a totally different culture from us, and I kinda do wanna know more about that. You know me, ever so curious,”

“And obsessed. At least promise me this time you won’t tell me to bleach out my hair,”

“Hey, white hair looks good on you, even if it was just hair chalk,” He shrugged, “Dark-brown-almost-black hair, green eyes, seems almost unnatural to me now”

“Now onto the topic I’m sure you’re just burning to tell me: what was last night’s episode?”

Marco’s eyes widened as he went onto a large rant on the newest episode (well, it was the first episode in the series but he hadn’t seen it yet so it was new enough), talking about how it was the perfect introduction to the series, and how well it all ties into the episodes he’s already seen. He was still singing praises when the fourth hour bell rang, and the two separated for their classes.

Amy opened her book as she walked down the hall, continuing where she left off before those two boys caught her attention.

WHAM

Their heads clacked together and both were sent falling to the ground. Rubbing her head, Amy looked up, and her eyes widened.

“Gamma! I’m so sorry!” She leapt to the fallen girl’s side, noting how there were a ton of papers strewn about from their collision, “Here, let me help you up,”

Gamma groaned and held her head as she was lifted to her feet, “Don’t worry too much about it, accidents happen--” The two locked eyes, and Amy’s widened. Gamma had yellow eyes; yellow eyes! Gamma removed her arm from Amy’s shocked grasp, “Stop it, they’re just contacts,”

“Oh. Oh!!” Amy brushed off her shock and began helping the goth pick up her papers, not saying much of anything.

The papers were a mix of handouts from the various classes she had been to, notes she must’ve written down or gotten from others, and more drawings. The handouts and notes were to be expected, but what she didn’t expect were the drawings; or rather, the nature of the drawings.

They were all very similar to the array she saw in the lunch line, with some Latin written at the bottom in a very calligraphic handwriting. That would’ve been all well and good, since she knew about that, but these seemed...different. They almost seemed to stand out from the notebook paper they were imposed on, like soon the paper would burst into flames from the weight of what was scribbled onto it. Amy had to pause and stare at them, it fascinated her.

It wasn’t until the drawings suddenly disappeared from her sight did she snap out of it. She jolted out of her stupor and stupidly handed the papers she collected over to their owner.

Gamma stood up, her papers and books clumsily shoved in her arms. Her face was hard, but she power-walked to her lunch hour without another word.

Amy sat on her haunches in a dazed stupor, until reality caught back up to her. She remembered with a start that she would quickly be late. Flinging her backpack up onto her shoulders, she made to dart down the hall.

CRRRNKL

The sound of paper under her shoes stopped her on her first step. She moved her foot and looked down; another sheet of notebook paper, now with a large, dirty shoemark on it. Against her better judgement, she paused and took time to pick it up and examine. Nothing on this side other than a giant, dirty shoeprint, but she could see the heaviness of the ink on the other side through this one. She turned it over, and there it was: another one of Gamma’s enchanting array doodles. She felt her eyes getting bigger and bigger, her mouth growing slack, and the edges of her vision growing darker.

She would’ve stared longer, if not for the fourth hour late bell ringing, breaking the enchanting drawing’s spell. Begrudgingly, she folded and pocketed the paper and walked to the truancy office to pick up her late slip, cursing herself all the way  
\------------------

“Lemme guess, that was the catalyst,” William chimed in during Amy’s pause

“Right on the money,” Came the response

\--------------------------  
Several times during the rest of the day Amy found herself wanting to slip her hand into her pocket and stare at the drawing, but her teacher’s and/or the people around her’s interjections stopped her from doing so. But during the last hour of the day, she had all but pushed the drawing out of her memory. The bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. While most others had been eagerly awaiting the bell for the past thirty minutes, and thus were out of there at the speed of light, she stayed behind to try and finish up the last few pages of her book before she took off.

“Sorry, Miss Reeker, but you can’t stay in here,’ Her teacher’s weary voice was soft, but was tinged with annoyance

“Oh, sorry,” and so she left the classroom, nose still in her book.

WHAM

Someone ran into her again, this time from the side. The collision was really powerful, sending a surprised, airless gasp out of her as she and the other sailed a good few feet to the side. They both emitted a grunt of impact as one fell on top of the other in a rackshamble mess. The noise of fluttering all around her signaled another papery mess.

Amy opened her eyes, to be met with a flurry of yellow and black. Well, according to the look on her face, a fury of yellow and black. Gamma stood right up, dropping the rest of her notebooks and folders, yellow eyes flaming mad. Amy cautiously began to stand up and reach for her book, which was closer to the furious Gamma than she would’ve liked.

“What is your problem?! Constantly running into me like that. Are you TRYING to mess me up?!” Gamma’s roaring had effectively silenced the noisy hallway, and for Amy to retract her reach, “Why did you have to come out of that classroom RIGHT as I was crossing it?? HUH?!” Amy managed to stand up all the way and make eye contact with the one yelling, “First time, that was an accident, fine! I could’ve gotten over that and the fact that you totally shuffled all of my notes up! I just needed to spend a few hours reorganizing them all again. But now! Again! You and your stupid tome had to make me fall AGAIN! Now my notes are everywhere, and I’ll have to comb through them time and again just to make sure I have everything! I’ll have to stay up until dawn to make sure a hole doesn’t get ripped in time and space!” Gamma held an expression of mortal panic, pulling and effectively ruining her feathered pigtails; and Amy held a stance of mortal terror, leaning her upper half away while her head slowly shrank into her shirt.

“Gamma, a hole won’t be ripped in the fabric of reality if you’re missing a few notes,” She managed to squeak out

“Oh, you would know, Miss Bookworm! Do you know what you are?! DO you know what you are?!” Gamma waited for a response, she got a head shake, “YOU ARE A 

\----------  
Whoa! Hold it right there! Hello, author Syd speaking, also known as Falljoy to some. I would like to say this here and now, I do not like swearing, cursing, profanity, etc. in my writings, but in this case it’s a pivotal plot point. I know, strange eh? Well, here is the censorship part, but know this: the word is “Female Dog.” Yes, that one.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, onto to finish my story  
\---------

The curse hung heavy in the air and echoed through through the halls, making Amy flinch back even farther, head almost completely buried in her shoulder. It was a moment before Amy got the courage to respond to the snorting Gamma.

“I-I really am sorry, Gamma. I didn’t mean to mess up your notes,” Her voice started off timid and small, but was now starting to grow in volume to normal speaking tone, “Can I help you at all?”

Gamma didn’t respond, but instead she quickly gathered up her things sprawled on the floor and left in a huff. She quickly disappeared into the crowd of stunned students. It was only now that Amy remembered the abandoned doodle.

\------------------  
Amy walked out to the bus lot and got on her bus with her head hung low; she was too downtrodden to finish the last page of her book, so it just sat in her lap as the bus engine roared to life and began to taxi out of the lot.

“You ok there? That was quite the verbal trashing you got,” She heard Marco’s voice from the seat behind her.

She glanced up to Marco, who was leaning on the backside of her seat with his arms folded on it. She turned back around, “Yeah, I’m fine. She really knows how to make words do a number on you; that last phrase held a lot of weight. How did she do that anyway?”

“You’re focusing on that? Technically she ran into you, so you got the wrong end of the yelling,”

“She seemed pretty wound up anyways; straw that broke the camel’s back or something like that. Still wanna befriend her?” She glanced a teasing look at the boy

“I am a bit put off by that fiasco, but I still wanna try. Maybe not tomorrow; after the weekend sounds good,”

“Ah yeah, the upcoming weekend. Any plans you have for us? TV? Old movies? Video games?”

“Naw, I don’t have anything planned. Now that I’ve seen the pilot episode I wanna review what I know and piece together some new theories, and I have a feeling you’re not up to a weekend of that,”

She chuckled, her mood lifting a bit, “You know me too well, you nerd--”

“Correct term is geek--”

“Whatever. For all I know this is another ploy to try and trap me so you could dye my hair silvery white again,”

“It’s ‘snowy white,” Marco closed his eyes and held up a correctional finger, “and last time was hair chalk just for picture purposes. It washed right out,” Amy chuckled as Marco dropped his silly facade, “But seriously, are you really ok? I know you well enough to know that must’ve hurt you pretty good. Maybe you could get off at my stop and we could hang out a bit, no weird geek stuff?”

“I’ll have to pass; dad’s insisting on making dinner tonight, and you know how well he does in the kitchen. He can burn water. I need to be there and make sure he doesn’t set the place on fire,”

“Again--”

She elbowed the seat backing, “Shut up, you,” She grinned a mile wide and began to try and push him off, which resulted in a fun little skirmish that lasted until the bus driver turned on the intercom to tell them to stop.

The bus drove away as Amy walked up the driveway to her house, head down and studying every single detail of the concrete walkway. She bumped her head into the door before opening it and walking in, and smelling burning as soon as she did.

“Dad!” She yelled out in a mix of concern and annoyance, “I asked you to wait until I got home!”

“I’m sorry, honey!” Came the response from down the hall a bit, “It’s just this recipe calls for a long cook time and I didn’t think it’d be done before dinner!” Amy walked into the kitchen, eyeing the smoldering charcoal on the skillet in front of her father.

“Why don’t I just order pizza?” Amy flipped out her phone and began to dial  
\------------------

“Did it happen then?”

“No, it didn’t, actually. Well,” She corrected herself, “I suddenly got super hungry and I ate all but one piece of the pizza, which my dad had to practically tear out of my mouth so he could have some. I woke up the next day with a ton of crumbs all over my face and food strewn about in my bed. I even still ate breakfast. At the time I wasn’t sure why I suddenly had a bottomless stomach, but now I have an inkling,”

“I believe ya,”

“Anyway, onto this last Friday,”

\---------  
Amy walked into the school slightly hunched over. Her head was swimming, her stomach kept doing flips, and it felt like her period was coming a week early. She didn’t even bother to straighten her hair or put on her makeup, such an effort was not worth it. Heck, she even wondered why she was coming into school today in the first place. Technically she didn’t have a fever, and unfortunately periods aren’t contagious, so her father thought she should go anyway. Why that was was beyond her.

She felt a slight tapping on her shoulder. Stopping dead in her tracks, she slowly turned her head to meet a frazzled looking Gamma, an expression on her face more sorry than the state she currently was in.

Amy turned her body around to meet her, unbrushed hair and all, “Gamma. What is i--”

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” She put an apologetic hand behind her neck, “I was incredibly high strung cuz I lost one of my drawings, and at the fact that I knew I had to go back to my host family and spend the entire night in my room organizing my folders again. I was a disaster waiting to happen. I didn’t mean anything I said yesterday,” She looked about to cry

“It’s fine, I know what stress does to people. But about that lost drawing, I think I picked it up,” Gamma’s eyes lit up in surprise. Amy rummaged through her bag and pulled out her notebook, “I was gonna give it to you yesterday as soon as I saw you again, but when we met again you left in a hurry,” She opened up the notebook and pulled out the shoved in paper, “Well, since we’re here here and now and not then, here’s your doodle,” Gamma hungrily snatched the paper, a look of pure relief and glee on her face, “and let’s let bygones be bygones,”

After quickly sliding the paper into her backpack, Gamma held out her hand, “Water under the bridge?”

Amy clasped her hand in a friendly handshake, “Water under the bridge,”

Besides the growing cramps in her lower half, the day went by rather well. Took a test she was rather confident about, ate some extra lunch while listening to Marco whine about missing the latest episode that had aired that night, watched a movie the whole period because the teacher was too burned out to teach anything, and soon the bell rang to signal the weekend had come.

Despite having a good day, and feeling content on that front, the ever growing pains in her lower half were getting pretty bad; so bad it was hard for her to stand up straight. So it’s gonna be one of those periods, eh? Might as well just call it Shark Week cuz she knew her mood was going to flare up horribly and eat everything edible in sight. She limped out of the classroom and was met face to face by a certain goth.

“Hi, Gamma,” Her voice was strained and hoarse, but she still tried to muster a smile. It died on her face when she saw Gamma’s concerned face, “What? What is it?”

“Are you ok? Did it have anything to do with me?”

This made Amy raise an eyebrow, “I’m just on my period; that doesn’t involve you at all,”

“A-are you sure?” Gamma was adopting another worried expression similar to the one she had that morning, “I just, uh, wanted to make sure I didn’t...hurt you in any way. Cuz I think I...I think I may have,”

“If you hurt me in any way it was emotionally, not physically. I’m fine, Gamma; after the first three days the pain will die down as it always does for me, and it will be relatively smooth sailing from there on out. Relax, after the weekend I’ll be fine, just you see,” Amy pushed past her and attempted to walk away, but her advancement was stopped when she heard the sound of tearing paper and felt a hand on her shoulder. A fragment of paper was pushed into her hands.

“If anything happens, give me a call, please. I won’t have peace of mind otherwise. If things are fine don’t wait until the weekend is over to tell me, ok? I just gotta make sure,” Worry and concern was heavily coloring her tone

A little suspicious of this action, but nonetheless grateful, she smiled, “Thanks Gamma, maybe I can have someone else to talk to other than my dad and Marco this weekend,”

With a smile and small nod, Gamma walked into the crowd.

There was a sudden wave of pain that sent her groaning and doubling over a little more, her smile and warm feeling quickly subduing given the fact that this weekend was most likely going to be full of pain and angst.

And it sure was

It was relatively dark outside; the sun had gone down but the effects of its rays still shone a bit since the sky was still a somber shade of light blue. Stars dotted the darkening sky as the streetlights turned on.

Amy was curled up on the couch, having taken at least five ibuprofens ever since she got home, and still eating voraciously. Her dad sat in his recliner, surfing through channels until he could find one that suited his current mood. The house was dark, mostly the only light coming from the television screen. Amy was trying to fall asleep, but both the horrible pain and the intense clawing hunger made it hard for her to do so. She lay there in silent agony, watching the tv as it flipped through channel after channel after channel. It wasn’t until she started shaking pretty violently did she try to do something else.

Amy started to get up, her arms feeling like noodles and the horrible cramps making her legs feel almost numb. It didn’t take long for her father to notice.

“Hey Pumpkin Spice, what ‘choo doin’? How do you feel?”

“I’m going to take a nice, long soak in the tub,” she groaned out, “because I feel like I’m about to burst at the seams from all this pain,” She made to stand up, but didn’t go much farther than a hunchbacked posture before waddling off towards the hallway.

“That bad, eh?” He replied nonchalantly, “Maybe you should take some sleep aids when you get out,”

Amy just grunted in reply as she disappeared behind the hallway wall.

She just had to wonder what exactly her uterus was doing to make everything hurt this much. She already knew what went down with a period, uterus shedding it’s inner layer and whatnot, but everything inside her felt like it was folding in on itself. Strange since the Niagara Falls from Hell hadn’t started yet, but it was all just a matter of time before it all came out on her new bed sheets.

Along with that was the hunger that just would not go away, that was new. True, she’s experienced intense hunger during periods before, but it never seemed like a bottomless pit of doom. Her body must be real upset at the fact she was still a virgin. A look of annoyance carved itself on her face as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the light.

The harsh fluorescent bulbs made her eyes squint, but it didn’t slow her down. She closed the door and made to the tub, feeling along the walls since she still wasn’t used to the light. Turning the knob and plugging up the drain, she made to undress, being careful since her hips had suddenly flared up in pain and sensitivity.

She sighed in relief when the hot water fell across her foot as she stepped in. It didn’t stop the pain inside her foot, but it eased the ever-growing aching on her skin. She let the tub continue to fill up around her, feeling the aches get suppressed as the water climbed. She finally felt she may be falling asleep.

She felt the water rise up to her ears, and sat up to turn off that faucet.

POP

She both heard and felt that; it came right from her hips and eased the pain in them ever so slightly. She looked down, her eyes widening and her mouth flying open, the scream that came out of her mouth was enough to scare the devil himself

“DADDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

Fatherly instincts firing on all cylinders, the man leapt up from his spot and bolted to the bathroom, flinging the door wide open and slamming hard enough on the adjacent wall to crack it.

“Amy?! What’s wro--!” He would’ve normally been bothered by the fact that he barged into the bathroom with his daughter stark naked, but right now something else bothered him.

Two growths that vaguely resembled small, shriveled arms were sprouting from his daughter’s pelvis.

“Help me, daddy,” She pleaded with tears dripping from her speech as well as from her eyes.  
\------------------------

“Yeesh, they just popped into existence like that?” William flinched, “Can’t say I’ve experienced much pain in my life, so I can’t even come close to imagining what that may have felt like,”

“Imagine ripping a sheet of paper, must be easy enough for you,” William took note of the description, “then imagine your entire body ripping like that, but then being pieced back together with another paper that’s not even the same make and type. Like construction paper to photo paper, or another such analogy,”

William took note of the description, “I’m guessing your dad started freaking out?”

\----------------------  
“Get in, get in, get in,” He urged her into the backseat of the truck. The mass of towels and blankets was lifted and shoved tightly into the small space. The man was clearly panicking, his face devoid of color and his entire frame shaking like a leaf. He ran to the front seat, fumbled with the keys, and peeled out of the neighborhood. Amy took note of the direction he was heading.

“Dad, the hospital is the other way,” Her stomach growled painfully, “Is the stash of jerky still in here?” Her voice was desperate.

The man didn’t say anything, rather he just pointed to the pocket behind the passenger seat. Amy quickly dug out the packet of jerky and began inhaling the dried meat, not even noticing they were rather stale.

They flew down the highway, only stopping and slowing down at intersections and police cruisers. All the constant hard stops and starts were giving her whiplash.

“Daddy,” Her voice was hoarse, “where are we going?” There was no response, “Dad, tell me where!” Still no response, “DANIEL REEKER!!” She screamed her father’s full name at the top of her lungs, causing the man in the seat in front of her to jump and look into the rearview mirror, and thus right into his daughter’s eyes, “Please...I can feel those limbs growing and twisting and everything down there is itchy and now my arms are itchy and crawling and so is my head oh my god I am so hungry please tell me where you are taking me!” She murmured out in one long sentence, sobs now racking her contorting body

He sighed, “I’m sorry, Pumpkin Spice, I should’ve told you long ago,”

“What?! Tell me now then!”

“...Let’s say human hospitals won’t be able to help you,”

Amy’s blood ran cold, “H-human hospitals? Are you implying--?”

“Look, we’re almost there. I’ll explain when we are in a safer environment. I also still have that big baggie of fruit snacks; by your feet,” He soon heard the rustling of plastic and the noshing sound of voracious chewing.

He drove for another minute before coming to a stop, Amy’s head hitting against the seat in front of her. The car door behind her opened, Amy remembering that some blankets had been jostled free around her legs

“Oh heaven have mercy,” The tone in her father’s voice was beyond nervous, he was terrified, “Come on, help is just inside!” He extended a hand to her and as soon as she took it, he pulled her out and began running as fast as he could with someone who could hardly walk.

Through the haze of motion and pain, Amy was colored quite confused. Where they had parked and now currently running towards was the old mall that closed down years ago in the 90s. She couldn’t fathom why her father thought help was inside.

“Uh,” she squeaked in confusion as he opened the door

“Angus!!” The sudden yelling in her ear seemed to be amplified 1000 times over and thus she yelped in surprise, “Angus!”

“Dad! Are you crazy?! This place is empty! There’s no one here that could help us!”

“You have to trust me, Pumpkin Spice,” He led her down the walkway past the dusty clothes racks, and soon the light of...streetlamps? came into view just outside the old store. When they stepped out, Amy had to check to make sure she wasn’t imagining things.

There are a few things you expect when stepping inside an old shopping mall; dirt, debris, stray animals scurrying everywhere, graffiti, maybe a hobo or two. The sight in front of her was anything and everything besides that.

What she was looking at was a town square, with shops, apartments, restaurants, clubs, foliage, statues, and even residents who paused to look at the ones who just burst in and were now running past them. She didn’t have a chance to get a good look at most of them, but she was certain that a good chunk weren’t even completely human. Her head was spinning and, coupled with the pain and the weirdness that seemed to be all around her, she felt like she was going to faint.

Despite her footsteps starting to sag, her father pressed on, turning a street corner that she swore read “Bing St.” He walked up some steps, lifting the almost limp form of his daughter up them, and began pounding on the door.

“Angus!! Angus please tell me you’re home! Angus!”

The door opened under his fist, causing him to swing one more knock, and hitting whoever opened the door square on the head. It called out in surprise,

“Oh, sorry Tucker,” He apologized, “Is your dad home?”

Amy lifted her head and was flabbergasted to see a little redheaded boy with deer feet and ears.

“Dad! Some sweaty guy with a girl wrapped up in blankets is here to see you!” He called from behind the door.

A man with a deep voice called in response, “Don’t be rude, Tuck, let them in!” The door opened and Daniel ushered the girl inside. The inside decal would’ve made her feel warm and homely, if she was given the chance to observe all the details. He brought her in front of a couch with another deerman and woman, with the woman holding a swaddle of cloth no doubt holding a little deerbaby.

“Danny? Is something wrong?” Angus’ calm tone was a bit unnerving. The deerman stood up and walked towards them, his hooves clacking on the wooden floor, “What seems to be the problem with your daughter?”

“This is the problem with my daughter,” He swiped away the blankets covering Amy’s lower half, causing everyone in the room to gasp and recoil.

Amy wasn’t given the chance to get some clothes, but that didn’t matter, seeing as her lower half was now covered lightly in dull golden fur, the “arms” protruding from her pelvis longer and now more able to be identified as forepaws. A little stub of extended spine stuck out of her rear end, making Tucker stare.

“Oh gods…” Angus gasped out, “Marlene, come with me! Tucker, watch Anabelle. You two, come on,” The deerman ushered them along and up some stairs, Marlene helping Amy up. They ran to the room at the end of the upstairs hallway and shut the door. Angus turned on the light while Marlene and Daniel set the suffering girl down on a worn couch.

Amy lifted her head, taking in the surroundings of the room. It was wall to wall with bookcases, filled with dusty tomes. Besides that and the couch she was laying on, there wasn’t much other furniture; a long buffet table with various tools on top of it and folding chairs shoved under, a modest side table with a reading lamp and glasses, and a small ottoman.

After taking in the sights, all the questions she had flooded back to her, “Wh-where am I? Who are you? WHAT are you? … What am I?! Do you have food? What secrets have you been keeping from me?!!” She pointed this last question towards her father.

“To answer your questions in order,” Angus stated while fingering through some various books, “You are in the Phoenix, Arizona Avalon. I am Angus Roger, a faun. I am also one of the Avalon’s many sorcerers. We do have a lot of food; makes sense you would be hungry,” Marlene left the room and her hooves were heard clopping down the stairs, “I’m not sure what’s happening to you, but you seem to take after your father. And as for your last question, I am not the one you should be asking,”

The blunt infodumb caught Amy off guard a bit, unsure what about half the words that came out if his mouth meant, but she turned her head towards her father, eyes demanding.

The man sighed, “I really was hoping I’d never have to rehash this story again, but it seems it’s slapping me in the face even after all these years,” He paused, “I’m a centaur,”

Amy’s face lost it’s color and she felt all four of her feet grow cold, “A what?”

“Centaur. Human upper half, horse lower half, that kind,”

Amy glanced at his legs, then back up, “Then where are your horse bits?”

Angus answered this part, “See this medallion around my neck?” She nodded, “It allows me to look human,” He demonstrated with a flash of light and his deerness disappeared, a human standing in his place, “Daniel here used to have one, until he gave it up,”

“Gave it up? What happens when you do that?”

“You can never look human again,” Daniel answered

“Then why do you--?”

“That’s where magic scholars come in,” Angus closed the tome in his hands with some force, “There’s medallion magic, which simply cast the illusion of humanity, and then there is permanent magic,”

“S-something happened, namely a big and nasty divorce that happened between your grandma and grandpa that split my family in two, and I began to hate the world I was born into; I wanted nothing more to do with it. I didn’t want to simply hide my horse butt, I wanted it gone, and so,”

“He turned to me for help,” Angus picked up where her father trailed off, “but at the time I wasn’t at the level to cast such a complex spell. So I pointed him to an older and much more experienced sorcerer,” At this moment Marlene walked back in with a tray full of a variety of food. As soon as it was set on the ottoman in front of Amy she attacked it with fervor.

“I gave up my medallion, and chose the spell to remain human forever,” Daniel shifted on the floor he was sitting on, “After that I met your mother, got married, had you, then she passed away, you know the story here,” Amy nodded in response

She swallowed her mouthful before speaking again, “So, you guys are pals? I’ve never heard you talk about him before,”

“I haven’t spoken to Angus for over a decade…” Daniel admitted, “I’m shocked he even let me in so quickly and jumped in to help,”

“Hey, I know it’s been a while, but I don’t hate you,” Angus patted his friend’s shoulder, “I’m happy to help,” Another flash of light and Angus’s antlers and hooves were back

“Please save the sappy catching up cliche for later. How does any of that help me in the slightest?!” Amy didn’t bother being polite as she felt a horrible lurch in her lower half. She felt herself get pushed forward a bit, suspecting she was now getting longer.

Angus held an expression of worry when he noticed the sudden shift, “Well, spells that give a permanent effect on someone become genetic, meaning you were born human, and would’ve remained human. But the thing about these kind of spells is that the more generations are born under it, the weaker it gets as said generations go on. The slightest contact of magic could cause the spell to fail. Do you remember anything that could’ve done so?”

Amy racked her brain as she shoved a carrot in her mouth, “I have no idea. I have no idea where to look or what to look for,” She began to idly scratch at the side of her head

“Anything give you a shock that was strange for it to do so?” She shook her head, “How about a random poke or shove from seemingly nobody?” She shook her head at this as well.

“Anything seem to stand out unnaturally to you?” No one noticed Marlene leave again, until she came back in with a t-shirt

It clicked, “That dropped drawing!”

“What?”

“Yesterday I accidentally ran into that new girl Gamma--”

“Wait, Gamma Raymond?” Angus interjected

“Yeah, her. I made her drop everything and I helped her gather it up again, but we overlooked one drawing and I kept it to give back to her later. It was so weird, like the paper was going to burn up from having that on it,” She slipped on the shirt, head poking back out to reveal the shocked face of the faun

“What did it look like?” Angus’ voice was coated with anxiety

“It was a circle with a bunch of scribbles and symbols inside it, along with some Latin written at the bottom of it,”

Angus brought a hand up to his face, “Of course,” He glanced at the girl as he watched her inch forward a bit more, “You did give it back to her, right?”

“Yes, this morning,”

“Would explain why this transformation isn’t more spontaneous,”

“Wait, how do you know Gamma?”

“Gamma Raymond is a sorceress in training. She came here for some experience outside of Asian style magic. The host house she’s staying in is just a few apartments down the street. We better get her over here,” A few hand motions, a flurry of lights sparked to life and flew out through the door.

“She did say she was worried she had hurt me in some way, gave me her phone number to call in case anything went wrong. I’m guessing this is what she meant--golly my ears are so itchy!”

“That’s because they’re changing too, dear,” Marlene stated

The news made her feel around her head and confirmed that they were larger, thicker, furred, and beginning to get rather floppy. Her face fell in agitation, “There’s no end to the good news,”

“Concerned she hurt you? How could she have known you were under a spell?”

“Maybe she’s perceptive? I was holding onto one of her, uh, arrays?” Angus nodded, “and then my pain and intense hunger started. If I was a sorceress in training I’d imagine I’d have to keep a close tab on my magic in case some got scattered; and if some did manage to scatter, I’d keep an eye out for possible repercussions,”

“Possible, and a good theory. I guess we’ll have to see when she gets here,”

There was a pause

“I have a quick question: if my lineage is centaur, why am I not growing a horse butt?” She motioned to the mass of dull gold fur that were now her legs

Daniel leaned in to get a closer look, “Looks canine to me,”

“I have no idea, Amy. Perhaps one of the questions Gamma will have to answer--” there was the sound of boots stomping up stairs and running towards them. The door burst open, revealing a haggard blonde goth girl with her hair down.

“Amy!” She had tears on her voice. She ran forward and gave the girl a big, teary hug, “I’m so sorry!”

“Gamma, it’s ok,” She pulled her out of the hug, “just explain to us what’s going on,”

The goth stepped back, observing what was happening, “I...I am flabbergasted,” Gamma then started mumbling under her breath in Chinese, “Transformation spells are far too advanced for my level,”

“Gamma,” Daniel interjected, “Just tell us what happened,”

The girl had to steel herself to prevent her from bursting into a mess of tears, “When we ran into each other the first time, I didn’t think anything of it. A-accidents happen, and I could just sort through all my notes and arrays throughout the course of the day. But by the time lunch was over, I realized one of my arrays had gone missing. I was sure that maybe I overlooked it somehow, so I scoured all my stuff, but I didn’t find it. If it has gone missing, the rogue magic could possibly have unwanted effects on things. I had to find it before things got too bad. It was a lot of stress, so when I ran into Amy again, I snapped, and the spell I was cultivating released,”

“Wait, what?!” was the general consensus said by everyone

“I was given the assignment a while back to try and conjure up an image of something, anything alive; an illusion of a different sort. The magic required for this spell couldn’t have been just something you practice again and again; it had to ferment with you, caring for it and trimming away excess growths that would lead to unwanted effects,”

“Like a bonsai tree?” Amy incurred, as she grunted in pain at another surge of growth

“Correct pronunciation would be ‘penzai,’ but yes. We would also have to learn how to control our temperaments, since emotions can control how it grows, and release it prematurely if you lose control. Needless to say, when we collided again, I lost control and so my many months of hard work were released, right at you,”

“So even more magic thrown at her; would explain why it’s going a lot faster than it would’ve with the limited exposure to the array,” Angus mused

“It was just supposed to be an illusion spell, not crack open humanform spells,”

“Wait, Gamma,” Amy put her arms up, noting with no real surprise they were getting furrier, “An image spell? What image were you cultivating?”

“None in particular, just the power to do so,”

“Then why is my lower half turning into a dog and not a horse?”

“Because the spell released when I threw that last word at you, that’s why it was so heavy. I threw the image of a dog at you,”

“That makes sense. Now my nose is tingling. It’s changing too, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s getting longer,” Marlene filled in for her

“Now if I wasn’t under a humanform spell, what would’ve happened to me?”

“You would’ve gained the illusion of a dog. You wouldn’t have actually changed, just had the illusion. It would’ve worn off in 24 hours.”

“Now that it seems that array cracked the humanform spell wide open, I’m guessing something went bottom-up and threw a wrench in things,” Angus stated while scanning through another tome, “Your horse half had been replaced with a completely different species. So when Gamma’s array damaged the spell, it opened up your undeveloped centaur state to other magics,” He closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, “IE Gamma’s cultivated image spell,”

CRACK

“Gyah!!” Amy’s back was thrown backwards as the almost developed forelegs shifted and snapped into place right under her torso. Amy glared at the mess of gold under her, “Great, at least most of the pain is dying down finally,”

“Doesn’t seem to have much farther to go. Usually painful spells and/or spell breaks are best moving faster than slower; the agony could drive you mad,” Angus tried to comfort her, but then his mind continued down the train of thought, “Although then again if all this happened at once the pain and shock to your system would most likely kill you where you stood, and if not could have lasting medical problems--”

“Dear,” Marlene’s hard voice halted her husband’s spiel in its tracks, “you’re not helping,” she gestured to their company, all of which had an expression of terror and/or guilt. 

“Oh, uh, sorry. Amy, at the rate you’re going is fairly easy on your body, as far as these things go, anyways,” He rubbed the back of his neck, “At least you’re not spewing blood like a few documented cases I’ve got here--”

“ANGUS,” This time it was Daniel who silenced the yammering faun, “I see few things have changed in these last ten years,” 

Amy rubbed her nose, the shifting bone and cartilage inside uncomfortable and tingly, but at least not painful, “So, how do I turn human again?”

“That’s the hard part, I’m afraid,” the same, hot shock ran down everyone’s spines, “You had a spell on you before, and now it’s breaking away. Not only that, you turned into a creature that is rather unnatural. Your lower half isn’t even wolf or coyote or anything like that; it looks like Golden Retriever, a man made animal that has only existed for a short amount of time, in the grand scheme of things,” He pinched the bridge of his nose, “Not only that, the humanform spell that was on you before gave you a limited immunity to other cloaking spells. It can be overcome, it’s just above my knowledge,”

She felt desperation rise inside of her, “What?! How hard can it be?! Can’t you just amp up the intensity of the spell?!”

“Not that simple. One, increasing the intensity would overload your system and possibly kill you. Two, I have absolutely no experience with this kind of situation, and I’ve only read about it being successful once. It was described like running through a minefield and having to try specifically hard not to even graze one,”

Gamma threw her head into her hands and began to sob and mumble phrases no one could translate.

“Is there anyone who can help? Hopefully inside this Alavon--?”

“Avalon,”

“Whatever. Anyone close enough to know what to do?”

“Not that I know of. The most advanced sorcerer here was Madam Yi and she died last month. Everyone else is about at my level,”

It was Amy’s turn to sob into her hands, No, PAWS.

“I think I know someone,” Amy raised a hopeful head to her father

“Who--grrk!!” She felt the most uncomfortable shifting inside her, like all her organs were moving and reorganizing themselves. It was so sudden and debilitating she couldn’t cry out; but as soon as it came on, it stopped, everything inside her seemingly certain they were where they needed to be. That’s when the pain stopped, and the tingling sensations to rise to their apex, making her flinch up and begin scratching everything.

No one had the guts to say anything, just watching as the girl scratched every part of her. She didn’t even seem to notice her face finish elongating, her floppy ears finish forming, her hair begin to lighten considerably from the roots out, nor the fact that both her furry hands and new feet just sprouted out long claws. This all took a good five minutes, Amy slowly getting more and more agitated, until she suddenly stopped. Seemed like everything else stopped moving as well.

“Am I done?” She asked, “I really hope so--” her stomach gave a grumble loud enough everyone in the room could hear it. She made to grab another foodstuff from the tray, only to find she had eaten everything on it, “Drat…”

“Hold on, let me grab some more,” Marlene slipped out the room and was back quickly with a box of granola bars, which Amy normally didn’t like but was too hungry to protest.

She ripped one open and made to bite into it, only to feel the bones in her mouth slide out of their place and land on her tongue, every single one at once. She spat the teeth out into her hands, gazing at the 32 in her padded palms. She looked up.

“Well, I guess that’s the last of that one--” She didn’t have time to gum out the rest before her vision went black and she passed out.  
\------------------

“Total exhaustion. First your body demands lots and lots of food to make up for the extra mass you were gaining, and now it needs to recuperate. Is that the last of the change?”

“Yeah, that part’s over, and I am sad to admit it was the easy part,”

\-----------------  
Amy felt herself slide into consciousness before her body responded. She felt a sense of relief wash over her.

[Oh thank the Lord, it was just a dream,] she thought to herself jovially while the feeling in her body slowly came back to her, [All that pain, I think I would’ve upchucked if I really experienced it] She tried to open her eyes, but found sticky gunk on her lids. She grumbled to herself in annoyance as she limply waved an arm around to try and make contact with her face to rub off the gross barrier. Her arm thumped around her, the impact sensations telling her it was a little off, but with her mind only half awake, she didn’t pay it much thought; that is, until she felt it make contact with her face at last. Something was definitely wrong, she realized with a hard shock down her, much longer, spine. Her eyes snapped open, feeling the color drain out of her face.

“KYYAAAAHHH!!” She yelled out on impulse and sat straight up, getting an eyeful of the last place she remembered being in from her “dream,” and subsequently felt her eyes begin to sting.

Being jolted awake from the sudden outburst, both Daniel and Angus squirmed from their sleeping spots on the opened folding chairs by the table, which was piled high with tomes open at various pages.

Angus looked around his study in a half-awake fervor, until his memories caught up to him and he yawned loudly. He stopped mid yawn as he heard violent sobbing, and turned to see Daniel hugging a crying Amy.

“Amy,” Angus called, said person lifting her head out from her father’s shoulder, “I can’t help you. I have no knowledge on how to figure this out and get you your life back, nor do I know anyone who can. I’m sorry,” Amy’s elongated face contorted in sadness as she went back to sobbing in her father’s arms, “But your father may know,”

She stopped sobbing instantly and locked eyes with her father, her eyes begging him to tell her.

Daniel sighed, “You are aware of your Aunt Tracy? My younger sister?”

Amy nodded, “She lives in Liverpool, right?”

“That’s her. Guess what, she’s a centaur too. Surprise,” He did jazz hands, “The Avalon there is the biggest one we know of, bigger than the one we’re in now. They’ve got a sorcerer, Tim; really powerful, really smart. As far as I know, and as far as we’ve been able to find, he’s the best shot we’ve got at getting you...uh…”

“Fixed up? Same terminology I’d use…”

“After you conked out, me and your father stayed up really late looking up spells, contacting local sorcerers, and coming down to our last straw option…” Angus stated, hesitant to say the deciding course of action

“What? What is it?” She got a hunch, “Am...I going to--,”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Pumpkin Spice,” Daniel shoved his face into his hands, “It’s the only way you can get the best help,”

“But I don’t want to leave,” Amy’s voice was stable, but one could easily tell it was beginning to wobble, “I want to hang out with Marco as we play video games and he drones on about that Nicktoon show he’s obsessed with. I want to go to school and sit through long lectures about stuff I’m gonna forget in two hours,” Her voice was definitively shaking now, “I-I wanna do normal human stuff! I wanna do normal human stuff here! I was born here, I grew up here! I don’t wanna leave!” Her words turned into sobs quickly

Daniel wiped a tear away, “I’m sorry, Pumpkin Spice. I wish I could come with you,”

Amy’s chest tightened even more and she brought her dad in a big bear hug. She drew away to ask a few questions, “When do I leave?”

“Tomorrow, first thing; Tim sent a plane to come pick you up last night and it won’t be here until tonight.

“I...can I have a chance to say goodbye to Marco, at least?”

“I don’t think I can allow you to go see him,”

“No, not what I meant. A phone call is all I’m asking for…”

\--------------  
“That phone call was rough. I broke the news to him that I was leaving for an indeterminate time, and the next day, no less. When he asked why I told him ‘medical reasons;’ I don’t think he bought that. He offered to come over and see me one last time before I left, but I said that wouldn’t be possible. He got mad at me, saying that it looked like I was just running off and abandoning him; I didn’t even warn him of any thin ice our friendship was on, at any time. I tried to tell him it wasn’t that and he wouldn’t understand, but then he just went on and hung up on me before I could say anything more,” Amy fought back some tears, “I felt so bad, no, I feel so bad about hurting him like this,”

“I don’t see why he can’t still call you,”

“He blocked my number, and every time I call his custom voicemail for me is ‘Go away, we aren’t friends anymore.’”

“Wow, rough. I don’t know how many more times I can say sorry without sounding repetitive,”

“I just hope I can see him again someday and tell him I’m really sorry,”

“Maybe in ten years time if and when you find him again,”

“I don’t want to wait until 2015 to apologize to a childhood friend. I’m not gonna give up on him while I’m away…”

There was a pause, “I assume the rest of the story is pretty short up until now?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how to walk now, and I certainly didn’t know how to walk then. I had to be carried out to the truck in a wagon pulled by my dad and pushed by Angus, and put in the bed of the truck with the help of a few other volunteers from inside the Avalon. This morning I tried to walk a little, but even with my dad helping me out I stumbled and fell on my face plenty of times. Dad was alone with pulling that wagon full of me up to your plane, and I hated watching him struggle like that. Oh gee,” She lolled her head back, “I wonder what’ll go down when we get to Liverpool. Who will be waiting for me? Aunt Tracy? This Tim guy? Some human who will pass out at the sight of me?”

“This is a personal meetup, and while there is security, they’re all in the know. I know Tim and Abbie are gonna meet you there, got something cooked up for ya to make things a bit easier for a little while, and allow you to go outside the Avalon occasionally, but I don’t know about your auntie,”

Despite the sun being high in the sky, Amy let out a big, loud yawn

“Tired back there?” He said with a smirk

“Understatement; I’m exhausted. No, not just exhausted, I’m weary. I am so incredibly burned out by everything that happened within such a short time frame, and the fact that I had a hard time falling asleep last night and had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to you in time. I just wanna sleep forever,”

“Go ahead, I won’t stop ya, lass,”

“Are YOU awake? Are you going to be fine flying this thing without much to keep you company?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I am! I’ve got plenty of long flights under my belt, I slept well last night, and I got some energy drinks up here. If all else fails, there’s the autopilot,”

“Right right, sorry. Irrational fear. I’m always so nervous to fall asleep during road trips cuz my dad has a tendency to get dangerously sleepy while driving,”

“Fair enough. Don’t sweat this one much, I’ve got this. You get yourself nice and rested, I’ll get us there in no time,”

Amy laid down on the couch, pulling her hat over her eyes to block out some of the sun’s rays. 

“Hey Will,”

“Yeh?”

“Thanks for listening,”

“No problem kiddo,”


End file.
